Maan Dam

All 17 villages affected by the Maan dam, are slated for submergence this
monsoon and flooding of Khedi village already began. Despite the fact that the rehabilitation policy of the
state government for the oustees of the Narmada Projects deems that the
oustees must be rehabilitated with irrigated land in lieu of the land that
will be going under submergence, the 5000-6000 adivasi people who will be
affected by this Project this year have not yet been rehabilitated.

These affected people have been on a dharna in Bhopal since May 15th with
all their demands and issues pertaining to rehabilitation and their
livelihoods. The State administration has instead responded quite
characteristically by cutting electricity supply, removing handpumps,
cutting down trees and bulldozing schools to forcibly evict these adivasis
from their villages. The adivasis and activists of the NBA responded
by intensifying their struggle. Four of them began an indefinite fast.
The government responded by arresting those on dharna but the fasters continued
, determined to fast until the government responded favourably.
Their 29 day fast
ended on Jun 18, when the MP government agreed to
set up an independent Grievance Redressal Authority to look into the issue
of proper and just rehabilitation.

Here are the pics of a school that has been razed to the ground and
a handpump that has been removed.

The Maan dam is one of the 30 large dams that has been planned as part of
the Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP). It is being constructed
on the river Maan (that drains into the Narmada River) as an irrigation
project in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.

The Maan Project received the legally binding environmental clearance
from the Central Environment Ministry in 1994. The condition of the
clearance was that the affected tribals must be resettled with non-forest
agricultural land. The state government policy for the oustees of
the Narmada Projects that was made in 1987 and firmed in 1992 also
required that the affected people must be resettled with land for land.
Despite this from 1991 to 1994, the state government completely violated
the conditions of the environmental clearance and the provisions of its
own policy and finished the rights of the people with paltry amounts
of cash compensation.

As a result, in 1994, the Appraisal Committee of the Central Environment
Ministry blacklisted the Maan Project for complete violation of the
conditions of the environmental clearance. In 1997, when the oustees
were given eviction notices, they organized themselves under the aegis
of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and raised their voices. After a long struggle,
in April­May 1999, the Madhya Pradesh government agreed to constitute
a committee for the rehabilitation of the affected people. This committee
which was constituted under the chairmanship of the Narmada Minister
of Madhya Pradesh comprised of the affected people, elected representatives,
government officials and two members of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
The government order of 2nd May, 1999 that constituted this committee
clearly stated that no construction work on the dam would be allowed
to be carried out that would endanger any affected person whose
rehabilitation had not been completed. But despite this clear order,
from October 2000 onwards, the state government began work on the
spillway section of the dam, thus creating a situation of imminent
submergence of hundreds of tribal families who are yet to be rehabilitated.

On the 24th of January this year, the Maan-affected tribals then took
out a protest rally in Dhar demanding immediate stoppage of work and
rehabilitation of the affected people. Subsequently after representations
to the NVDA, a government order of 30th January stopped the work on
the spillway section of the dam. The actual physical work had to be stopped
by demonstrating people at the dam site demanding that the order be
carried out.

The situation as of today is that the government has decided to carry on
the construction and drown out the people. The people of the Maan project area
have resolved to stop the Project through non- violent but militant struggle.
But the reality is that the spillway section of the dam is being plugged
in at the rate of a foot a day. It is crucial that all work on the dam
must immediately stop.

On this page, we will document the struggle against this dam and request
you to take action and provide support to the people struggling for
just rehabilitation.